


Purgatory

by ArticulateDream



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Magic, have a story, time to call in reinforcements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:51:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArticulateDream/pseuds/ArticulateDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cordelia falls into a coma that Angel thinks is magical in nature. So he calls in Willow for reinforcements.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Purgatory

Doyle had wondered about death a lot in his younger years, rather inevitable being surrounded by it so often. But now, he knew it was kind of like being alive. 

Time passed quicker. Accelerated from minutes and hours to weeks and months. Things were easily dealt with, there wasn't terribly much that you could truly worry about when you were dead. And the things you did worry about seemed to rush by too quickly for the anxiety to linger unwanted. There wasn't any need for food, nor drink. But, it was harder sometimes...being dead. He followed the people he cared about around, namely Cordelia and Angel. It hurt to watch them suffer without being able to help. It hurt more to watch Cordelia suffer with the visions he had given her. 

This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. He wasn't in heaven or hell. Somehow when he'd died, he wound up somewhere else. Doyle thought he was in Purgatory.

 

Willow looked at Angel. "So you think its a non-coporeal demon causing havoc?"  
"That's what everything we've found seems to point to. When what we can tell it starts by following its intended around.."  
"Angel you have resources I can't even begin to-"  
"It's hunting Cordelia." Willow paused for a brief moment.  
"When you say hunting..."   
Angel ran a hand through his short dark hair and sighed. "Cordelia was acting strange for a few days before we noticed it...things have just...well they haven't been the best of late. But then the other night...she fell into a coma. The doctors can't tell us why. Shes still showing brain activity, it wasn't a stroke. There wasn't any sign of trauma, and I mean when she gets visions its the same as trauma. It was like she laid down to take a nap or something and just didn't wake up."  
"I'll see what I can do." Willow reached up to brush a lock of red hair out of her face. "But Angel...I really can't...I can't make any promises. I'm leaving for England in two weeks. I have to be on that plane. I'll do what I can though, okay?"

 

Cordelia stood at the edge of the water. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, reflecting off the perfect blue of the lake. Yet something was wrong, she just couldn't put her finger on it. Something tried to warn her from the back of her mind. Whatever it was, it could wait. The day had been perfect, and she was unwilling to let anything intrude and ruin it for her. Yet...it was getting late, she knew she should pack up and head back for the car.  
But then, the car was only a short walk away. Besides which, she wasn't ready for the day to be over. And when was the last time she'd been able to just sit down and watch the sunset? So instead of getting up and heading for the car, she leaned back on her arms luxuriating in the day. Water lapped gently at her feet, still warm from the day. She closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth and the day. Cordelia never notices the rupple in the air behind her. 

 

Willow yawned widely and stretched before looking back down at the notebook in front of her. It was covered in hand written notes, with books and page numbers. there were cross references scribbled in the margins. After a week of scouring texts, with team of nearly forty helping her, she'd found only one spell that could help. Reading through her notes for the umpteenth time, Willow sighed and raked a hand through her hair. 

Angel's sources had been right about the demon. The Rh'Zja demon fit the profile perfectly. An incoporeal demon that fed off the dreams and visions of the people they caught, they lived by siphoning the life of their prey away. They preferred taking their victims when they were unconcious because they were easier to manipulate that way. Seers were a favored victim because the visions were an added treat. When the demon had found Cordelia, it was like walking in on a free steak dinner. 

To kill the demon, they would have to coporealise it. That had never been a question. The problem Willow had come across was how to coporealise it. The spell she'd come across would easily coporealise the demon. However, upon coporealisaton the demon tended to send its victim into a kind of shock. In several of the cases, when the demon died it had taken its host with it. There were 2 cases out of more than a dozen where the host had survived unimpaired. Many had died or been permanently hospitalised for mental or physical reasons. The longer the Rh'Zja had control of Cordelia, the more traumatic the sundering would be. The two survivors had been freed after only a day or two of being in the demon's thrall. Cordelia had been in a coma for more than a week now. 

As it were, the Rh'Zja had claimed the brunette as a host. She was nearly a vegetable, though thankfully still showing brain activity. If the demon was killed, there was a very definite chance that it would take Cordelia with it. The doctors in the facility were already beginning to believe that she would never wake up anyway. Propping her chin up, Willow looked at the myriad of spell books spread over the table in front of her. If she told Angel about the spell, he would without doubt ask her to perform it. Willow wasn't sure she could deal with being the person to cause Cordelia's death. There had been no love lost between the two of tehm, but in the past few years they had almost become friends. 

Then again, there was the irrefutable fact that a demon was using Cordelia as a host. Slowly, over time it would kill her. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. So did she perform the spell that would probably kill her, or wait until the demon eventually killed her. Willow sighed and began rhythmically banging her head into the table. She would call Angel in the morning and tell him about the spell. All she wanted to do right now was sleep...and take some tylenol for the headache she'd just given herself. The spell needed to be done as soon as possible, but at the same time Willow couldn't be completely exhausted when she did it. Rubbing her forehead with one hand, Willow scanned over the hand written notes and began mentally compiling the ingredients she would need to do the spell. 

Willow already knew what she'd be working with. She'd seen Cordelia in the hospital, so she knew what kind of space restrictions she would have. While she had been able to vaguely sense the demon, she kept feeling like she was missing something, something big. The red head tried to shake off her vague anxiety and continued at the task at hand. There was so much to do before she could get to sleep.

 

Cordelia sat watching the sun begin to set. The sun was casting highlights of red and gold out and across the grass. The lake had turned a beautiful purple, and darker blues than were usually evident bounced back and forth. The sunset had been the topping on the cake of a beautiful day. Stretching she sighed contentedly before letting her chin fall into the palm of her hand. It was beautiful out, but lonely. As though someone could hear her thoughts, there were two distinct ripples in the air. Cordelia only noticed the one in front of her. From the ripple, a dark haired man walked forward.   
"Doyle?" Cordelia's eyes opened incredulously. She hadn't seen Doyle in what seemed like forever. Though a warning rang through the back of her mind Cordelia tried to ignore it. But it kepy yelling at her, hadn't something happened? Wasn't there a reason that she hadn't seen Doyle in so long? She struggled to remember for a long moment before she felt something squeeze her on the shoulder. As she felt the squeeze, the doubt at Doyle's presence melted away. Yet, there was still something different about Doyle, she just couldn't quite put her finger on it yet. But again, before she could focus on the difference the sunset drew her back in.

 

Angel looked at Willow over Cordelia's prone form on the hospital bed. Neither of them wanted to do the spell. But they really had no choice. It was either a high possibility of killing her now, or the eventuality of the demon sucking her dry. So here they were. Willow making the final preparations of the spell that would coporealise the demon, and himself to kill it once he could actually see the damn thing. The young witch met his eyes, and while the turmoil they both felt was evident there it was outweighed. Overcast by a quiet determination he had come to associate with the red haired woman. 

"Are you ready?" A final chance to backout.  
"Yes." Angel took a deep steadying breath and watched as Willow began to quietly chant.

 

Doyle looked at Cordelia and for a moment was tempted to sink into this. This...whatever it was. For years now he'd had no true interaction with anyone or anything. At least, not other than the odd ghost here and there, and ghosts were usually far too obsessed with something to be good conversationalists. Doyle frowned and shook his head. Whatever this place was, it was muddling with his head, and he didn't like that fact. But now..here he was with Cordelia and she was looking at him instead instead of through him. And the view...even if it was spelled, was beautiful. Doyle's brain came to a stuttering halt for the second time in five minutes. Where in seven hills was he? Not so long ago he'd been watching Cordelia in a hospital room. 

Runing over the time in his head, Doyle realised that one moment he'd been in the hospital, and the next he had been here. Time passed quickly, but it sure as hell didn't pass that quickly. Something here was very not right.

"Hey princess"  
"Hey Doyle"  
"Wha'cha doing here?"  
"I came out for a picnic. Now I'm watching the sunset...I should probably go..." As she spoke, the ripple behind her appeared again, except that this time, Doyle saw it. He focused on the ripple and watched as it fleshed out. It was a graish white creature. It had a multitude of of long slender limbs. They were all wrapped around Cordelia. Watching it, Doyle realised she had no idea that they were even there. Eyes wide, the irishmen walked toward the brunette, trying to stay calm.

"Long time no see, eh?"  
"Yeah...Why is that Doyle? I missed you." As they talked, the demon's grip began to minutely lessen, and slacken bit by bit.  
"Why are you still here Cordelia? Its late.." As Doyle talked, he ran one hand over her arm. Trying to covertly untangle the thing's grip on her arm. As he did that, their eyes met and there was something more there.   
"I'm still here causing I was watching the sun set...and well..hoping I had someone to kiss while it set.."

 

Willow fought to bite out the final words of the spell. The hospital room seemed to hold a small tornado in its confines. Her hair was whipping around wildly, and her hands poised in mid air were seemed to look like claws. As though she was holding onto something invisible. Her body was braced against the wind, her face furrowed with determination.

"Avat Nuer Calath demoshtar" As she spoke, the words were swallowed by the wind, though the air above Cordelia began to flicker. Shapes seemed to appear and then disappear as though an intricate magic trick let them push against the fabric of the world.The wind picked up suddenly, and threw Willow agaubst the wall to her back. She snarled, a throaty guttural sound. Her eyes flashed ebony and her hands grabbed onto something beyond eyesight and pulled. The vague shapes were suddenly real and there. It was a gray-white tangle of limbs that perched on and above Cordelia. 

 

Doyle saw the demon try to hold on as it flickered. And while he had untangled two thirds of the octopus like limbs, Cordelia was still trapped.  
"Cordelia-" Her dark eyes met his own. "Whatever happens, you stay with me okay?" Acting on impulse he pulled her close and kissed her. Cordelia melted into the kiss for a moment before he body began to tense up, and she started to scream. 

 

Angel shoved the silver pick through the demon's brainstem and watched as all of its limbs turned an icy blue and shriveled up. They had covered Cordelia from her head to her waist and had nearly obscured her from view. Now, thin as threads they began to disintegrate. Even so, the vampire's eyes did not leave Cordelia's prone form. For a brief moment that seemed to last hours, she was quiet and unmoving. Then, without warning, she began to convulse, and the first sound issues from her mouth in weeks was a scream.   
The monitors echoed her screaming. Her heart rate suddenly shot skyward, Her temperature not far behind. The monitors that checked brain activity were off the charts. Angel tried to hold her down so that she didn't throw herself off the bed. The screaming, roused Willow from her place on the floor. Weakly, she lifted one arm fingers outstretched and palm facing Cordelia. 

"Asaverti."

Over the commotion of Cordelia, all Angel saw was the red head mouthing the words. Yet, the reaction was almost instant. Cordelia took a deep wrenching breath in the form of a pained gasp, and there was a very audible 'thud' from the corner opposite Willow. Through his peripheral vision, he saw Willow push herself up against the wall and start to move towards investigating the noise. Angel's focus returned to Cordelia. She took another gasping breath before beginning to cough. As she coughed, she curled up on her side. Angel began speakng to her softly.

"C'mon Cordelia, you've got this..."  
"Angel?" The dark haired man froze.  
"Yes?" Her voice was hoarse, but when he lowered himself to eye level he saw a familiar gaze. Awake! Cordelia was awake!  
"What happened Angel? I was at the lake with Doyle...he told me I had to stay with him..."   
"Cordelia...Doyle's dead. he died years ago..."  
"Oh. ...It must have just been a dream then...but Angel?"  
"Yeah?"  
"He held me while I screamed...it hurt so bad..I thought..I thought I'd die."

Before Angel could answer her question, a nurse began checking over Cordelia excitedly. 

"Hey uh..Angel?"  
"Yes Willow?"  
"You're never gonna believe this.."  
"Cordelia's awake, I know." Angel was answered by silence.  
"Yeah, you're still never gonna believe this.. Just..c'mere for a minute." Leaving Cordelia to the nurse Angel turned to the corner behind him and stopped dead in his tracks. On the floor clutching his head and groaning was a young dark haired man. Rubbing his head he looked up, and Angel froze. Doyle. It was Doyle.

"The hell was..."  
"Doyle?" The younger man froze like a deer in the headlights, and looked up meeting Angel's eyes.  
"You can see me?" A grin lit his features, and Willow's eyes flickered over meeting Angel's. Somehow in Coporealising the demon they had brought Doyle back. How had they done it, and more importantly...what had they done?.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my response to what happened to Doyle in Season 1 and was never really addressed. I always loved him and Cordelia, so I tried to get them something close to a happy ending.


End file.
